Intermedia Arts gets $1 million grant

In 2013, Intermedia Arts created a pilot project with the city of Minneapolis, pairing artists with city planners to come up with orginal ideas for improving neighborhoods.Pooling the talents of the wonks and the dreamers for a little "creative city-making" produced results including small area plans for DInkytown, Linden Hills, Penn Ave. N. and a southwest-Minneapolis LRT station. The project was funded with $325,000 from national grant giver ArtPlace.

Now Intermedia, known for its community involvement and outreach to all demographics, can expand on that initial effort, because the Kresge Foundation has given them $ 1 million to do just that over the next three years.

Intermedia will help to select local artists to work with up to five city departments, said Theresa Sweetland, executive and artistic director of Intermedia Arts. Both current mayor Betsy Hodges and former mayor R.T. Rybak were on hand at an early afternoon gathering at Intermedia's space on Lyndale Ave. S to announce the news.

Results of the 2013 pilot program are on display in an exhibit called "This Is Our City!" at Intermedia through March 8.

Photo: Director Theresa Sweetland of Intermedia Arts, which announced a $1 million grant from the Kresge Foundation Monday.